Can I "not buy anything new for a year?"

[kathleen]

I've been working on eliminating 'hair washing' as such...have a look at http://crabappleherbs.com/blog/2008/02/ ... hair-care/ , I've cut down to rinsing my hair with baking soda & water followed by a weak vinegar & water solution, then the next step is using leftover herbal tea with a little vinegar added (I'm on a crazy mission to make apple cider vinegar from the apples we didn't eat off our 3 trees this year), my hair is looking astonishingly good, the key is brushing 100 strokes a day like nana always said to! Lots of other quite cool ideas on the same blog. If you stopped buying hair cleaning stuff cold turkey I expect you'd have a problem though! Anyway, heaps of info on the herbwifes kitchen blog, no need to regurgitate it here.

[hamster]

I bought three books and a new dress.

[LBR]

Kathleen, thanks for the link about giving up shampoo. I thought people were trying to use baking soda directly on the scalp. Making a potion with water makes sense.

I'd like to join the not buy anything new for one year challenge.

The exceptions are more or less the ones I was thinking of.

Hope a few more join in.

[Flo]

Sigh - life is full of difficulties when you are trying to live without buying anything new for a year.

My feet are well not ordinary, every day shaped feet and I wear shoes out like there's no tomorrow. I've just had to buy a new pair of shoes to replace a set that fell to pieces (being fully retired I'm far more active) and due to peculiar feet they had to be new ones.

Had to have new bras but that's allowed with regards to underwear (this self sufficient allotment lark pinged all the hooks on the old ones ) The nighties fell apart and there were no new ones big enough in the charity shops. Diet required did someone say All the pillows in the charity shops were even flatter than the one that I had in use and dirtier too. So that's another new purchase. But the handbag which replaced the too small one was from the charity shop anyway.

Now the camera battery is rechargeable but spares? Heck to add to the complications I've got a camera where the batteries are like no on the market it seems and are certainly special to the specific model. So I have just spent an arm and a leg on new batteries which had to be ordered over the telephone. But they are rechargeable.

The only thing that cheers me up in trying not to buy anything new for a year is that it has stopped me buying "stuff" - with the exception of the camera it has all been replacements for items I wear or use day in, day out. I'm learning how little I really "need" and how "much" I just fancy.

[the.fee.fairy]

Pre-alerting here: I'm going to fail.

I've kept to buying clothes from ebay (so, even if they do come through the door with the tags on, i've bought then believing them to be second hand...).

However, i'm going to have to buy a laptop. It will be a refurbished one though, i'm definitely not rich enough for a new one! I'm going away for a month, and i need to access t'internet during this time, and i'm going to load it with videos, music and games to entertain myself while i'm away too.

[Wombat]

Pre-alerting here: I'm going to fail.

I've kept to buying clothes from ebay (so, even if they do come through the door with the tags on, i've bought then believing them to be second hand...).

However, i'm going to have to buy a laptop. It will be a refurbished one though, i'm definitely not rich enough for a new one! I'm going away for a month, and i need to access t'internet during this time, and i'm going to load it with videos, music and games to entertain myself while i'm away too.

Hey Fee,

We will be looking to replace our current desktop with a laptop (less power consumption) at some stage. Where does one find refurbished laptops?

Nev

[Big Al]

Pre-alerting here: I'm going to fail.

I've kept to buying clothes from ebay (so, even if they do come through the door with the tags on, i've bought then believing them to be second hand...).

However, i'm going to have to buy a laptop. It will be a refurbished one though, i'm definitely not rich enough for a new one! I'm going away for a month, and i need to access t'internet during this time, and i'm going to load it with videos, music and games to entertain myself while i'm away too.

Hey Fee,

We will be looking to replace our current desktop with a laptop (less power consumption) at some stage. Where does one find refurbished laptops?

Nev

Don't you have shops that do this Nev?? In our town, pop 90,000 we have at least 7 shops that i can think of that refurbishes laptops and re sells them. Obviously we are ahead of the game somewhat...
sorry it's not much help.
Alan

[Shirley]

TG, there's somebody on the Ecologist who's been doing just that for the past year - have you been reading that?

I've been following that, too, Ina. It's that actor who played Kryton in Red Dwarf. ( I think he does Scrapheap Challenge now - Robert Lewellyn).

and surprise surprise... he's written a book that we can all go out and buy

[ina]

So we'll now all have to wait a few years until the book appears in our local charity shops?

Books have definitely been my downfall this year... In my two weeks holidays earlier this month I bought 18 of them!!!!! And most of them, I admit it, new ones... Oh dear. But can't really think of anything else that I bought new this last year. Not even clothes.

Edited to say - I just remembered something I bought - a garlic press. And it's not even an essential item... Had managed to survive for years without one!

[dogbert]

Good luck to you!
Personally, I'd struggle not to buy any books. I'd be able to keep going on what I've got for a while, and of course there's always the library, but I'm a complete bookworm so it'd be extrmely difficult to resist temptation walking past secondhand bookshop.

[ina]

Another new item I just bought: a windup lantern... But as I am about to move into a caravan, with powercuts a real possibility, I thought I'd better invest in one!

[Penny Lane]

Instead of buying new books have you thought about swapping? (Sorry if this has been mentioned already)

http://www.readitswapit.co.uk/TheLibrary.aspx

Just issued DH with the challenge... don't think he realises how much he buys new!

[Andy Hamilton]

I have been half doing this and intend to up it next year and try not to buy anything new. But, books, books, books that has been my downfall here too.

Actually I have bought some things that will help me to be greener such as my bike trailer that was new, and not so green I also bought new power lead for my laptop and a new hard drive for my pictures, but sort of green (at least light green) a new pair of jeans and shirt (organic cotton). New demi Johns and air locks were bought but I did find some second hand kliner jars.

I bought a second hand desk to replace my old own, second hand book shelves, second hand telly, second hand (regonditioned) digital camera. I did buy a memory card for it though and that was new.

Hang on the more I think of it, I bought a new carving fork too this year.

Pretty rubbish. Like I said next year.

[Green Aura]

I'd love to have a go at this - not least because we're flat broke!

We've got loads of seeds, pallet wood ( for raised beds), seaweed for fertiliser and a fully functioning polytunnel, so we should be OK for much of our veg requirements. I've got an enormous amount of different fabrics and yarns (stockpiled over many years - some of it's even fashionable again ) so apart from underwear I should be able to keep us in clothing and soft furnishings. And we've got most of the stuff we need for various projects around the house.

We need a new kitchen sink and some floor covering, but then we'll have everything we need to upgrade (for that read burn) the really unpleasant kitchen we inherited when we moved in here - believe me no-one else would want it. We could do with a new loo and bathroom sink as our current one's are dusky pink - not nice, but as we've lived with them for the last 18 months I'm sure another year won't hurt.

We joined readitswapit about 6 weeks ago and are doing a roaring trade (or should that be swap). So books (one of our treats) needn't cost more than the postage. So unless anything major breaks down I think we could probably manage it. In fact, I think we will give it a go. Well maybe I'd better discuss it with OH first .

The biggest stumbling block I can foresee is the central heating - at £30+ per week for coal (+ leccy for the pump) we really could do with replacing this old boiler - although I think we're going to try reducing the size of the firebox first (as someone on here very kindly suggested) - although I suppose we'll have to buy those too! Still, better than the alternative.

How do we measure our progress? Do we have a confessional thread?

[Andy Hamilton]

How do we measure our progress? Do we have a confessional thread?

I think that would work pretty well.